21. Megu Kataoka: Turn the Other Cheek (11/5)
May 7, after the monthly assembly
We pass out snacks to everyone for the short, but uphill hike back to our schoolhouse. Everyone's grateful, because we have to skip lunch to make the trip down to the main school, mostly so we can be officially mocked in front of everyone. Thanks to Koro-sensei's intervention, it went better for us than last time, and everyone's in good spirits. Good enough that they're even making comments about the main school.
"Did you see the looks on their faces when Bitch-sensei shoved Nagisa's face in her breasts? So jelly."
"With her harassment, they wouldn't last a day in her class before getting so scared they'd switch teams."
Even I chuckle a bit, and next to me Isogai rolls his eyes in exasperation before moving ahead of the group. Looking at it normally, we shouldn't allow this to go on, but it's nice to come back from one of these things not feeling like we've been trampled by horses. With how we're treated, it would be impossible to blame them for wanting to get back at the main school in some small way.
I glance back at Nagisa, in the very back of the group, to see how he feels about it. He looks… odd. He has this strange little smile as he sips from a juice box, but his eyes are incredibly focused. It's actually a little creepy.
"Don't you think so too, Kataoka-san?" I look at Fuwa questioningly. I didn't hear what she said. "We should totally start an avenging valkyrie group. Riding in the night, dealing out retribution to the pompous tyrants of the main school!" She says in her usual imaginative way.
It's almost too bad I'm not into that kind of thing. "Well, if you want to, there's really no way for me to stop you." Our class is like its own little school, but authority is hard to come by. The secrecy of our task means that we can't easily be suspended or expelled for using our abilities, because the school can't publicly acknowledge them. The worst we're likely to get is a stern talking-to from Karasuma-sensei, and he's usually too busy to even do that. "But that kind of retribution isn't for me." I say calmly.
Fuwa is taken aback. "No way. You really think we should let them act that way without doing anything in return? Come on, you've got to be at least a little angry at them for the way they treat us. It's the most natural thing in the world."
I shake my head. Yes, I understand fully how they feel, but I have my reasons. "It's awful, the way they talk about us." I say, addressing the group of girls around me. "But, I can't hate them for it, because I understand why they are that way. I remember what it was like to be part of the main school. The fear and stress." From the way they now look downcast, they remember as well. "They mock us because they're terrified of ending up like us, so they cling to the idea of being better. For a lot of them, I bet it's all that keeps them afloat. I'm not saying to just forgive them, because what they're doing isn't okay. Just don't judge them too harshly. I think that we're all victims of this school, in one way or another."
Fuwa's tense face stares straight ahead in silence for a while. "You know… I think the chairman might be a sociopath. If anyone deserves, no, needs to be assassinated, it's him." Inwardly, I can't disagree. The ways this school works is entirely his brainchild.
"You can't." Jelavic-sensei suddenly interjects from my other side. In surprise I look up at her. She's serious, and looking a lot more respectable than usual. "A hitman cannot take a contract on someone they are strongly connected to." She explains with a raised finger. "In murder investigations, the first thing they look for is who has a motive to kill. Looking for even the slightest motive, you can reduce the number of potential suspects from millions to at most a few dozen. Without that, even if they find physical evidence, it's almost impossible to link a specific unknown person to that evidence. In some cases, just determining that evidence is related the actual event of the crime is hard. Staying disconnected from our marks is our best protection in the aftermath. Never forget that. But…" She raises her chin and puts a hand on her hip imperiously. Her gaze and voice are as sharp as a real knife. "In the event you kids ever come into some money, I'd be happy to take care of that for you."
Somehow, her offer warms my heart far more than it should.
Keeping this one short, sweet and to the point, because I'm sick as a dog right now. This is another one where I wanted to make a point more than explore the cast, but I ran into a problem right off the bat. The theme here is forgiveness, who deserves it and who doesn't. When I thought about how to write this, I had a hard time picking out who the subject would be. I mean, if you look at the members of class E, how many of them would you describe as forgiving? It's really not one of their standout traits, is it? Megu, at least, doesn't seem to hold a grudge when she has the opportunity to, so after weeks of deliberation I went with her.
According to a translated extra from the second volume, the school-wide assembly takes place during fifth period, right after lunch, but class E students are required to skip lunch to make the trek down to the main school and must be lined up before the other classes.